


Under The Sea

by Jathis



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Humor, Merpeople, Multi, Native American Cecil, Native American Character(s), Native Earl, POCecil, Trans Carlos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-24
Updated: 2015-11-24
Packaged: 2018-05-03 05:14:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5278007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jathis/pseuds/Jathis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the prompt of "someone is a merperson and becomes trapped in another's net"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Under The Sea

“Early! Early wait for me!” Cecil protested, giving his tail a sharp snap to try and speed up, hoping to keep up with the other as he continued to swim ahead of him. “Earl, you’re swimming too fast for me!” he said, reaching out and grabbing onto the other’s tail, giving it a sharp tug to stop him. “Early!”

The other Merman sighed as he finally stopped, turning to look at the other. “What’s the matter?” he finally asked, adjusting the smooth shell that covered the hole where one of his eyes had once been. He had lost it years ago to a shark along with two of his fingers protecting Cecil from harm.

“What do you think it is?” Cecil asked.

“We won’t know until we get there and look,” Earl reminded him, “right?”

Cecil considered this, nodding his head slightly as he looked up in the distance. There was a large black shape up above and the pair had gone off to investigate it. “I guess so…” he mumbled.

Earl smiled. “I heard Josie say that it’s something called a boat,” he said.

“A boat?” Cecil blinked at the odd word, looking at the shape again. He perked up when he saw something being dropped from the shadow and he finally let Earl go, swimming ahead of him to get a better look. “What is that?” he asked, reaching out to touch the slender object that had fallen and started to spread out.

“Cecil! Don’t!” Earl watched in horror as his friend became tangled up in the net, lunging forward as it started to rise, taking Cecil up with it. “Cecil!” he shouted.

“Earl!”

* * *

Carlos perked up when the line he had dropped down immediately reacted to coming into contact with something. Happily he pulled a lever, watching as the crane started to pull the net up from out of the water. “What could I have caught so early?” he wondered aloud. He had only been out for a few hours, testing some new fishing equipment he had invented to help the farmers back in his hometown catch more fish for food and money.

He was  _not_  however expecting to find a Merman in his net.

His eyes widened at the sight, unable to do anything else but allow his machine to finish bringing the net back onto the boat, dropping the net and its contents into the boat. He had heard of Merpeople before but had never thought that he would ever be lucky enough to actually see one. His upper body’s skin was a shade of brown lighter than his own and his hair was long, straight, and black. His tail was covered in swirling purple and gold scales, the pattern of an eye seen if you looked hard enough at it.

Cecil yelped as he and the net were dropped down onto the boat, squirming uselessly under the strong material. “Let me out of here!” he shouted.

The shout woke Carlos up. He shook his head and moved to stand beside the net, reaching down to help remove it from the other. “Here…let me help…” he said. He winced when a purple and gold scaled tail smacked at him and he pouted down at the other, shaking his head. “Hey! I’m trying to help! Stop fighting or you’ll get yourself tangled up even more!”

Cecil stopped when he saw the other making an attempt to free him and he finally held still, watching him warily as he worked on freeing his tail. “What do you think you’re doing anyway?” he asked.

“Huh?”

“Trapping unsuspecting people in nets like this! That’s not very polite!” Cecil huffed.

Carlos blushed, rubbing the back of his head. “To be fair…it’s not like I meant to catch you! I was just trying to test this on some fish!”

Cecil shook his head once he was freed from the net, looking the other over carefully now, propping himself up on the palms of his hands. He had heard about Humans before but he had never seen one until now. He wondered if all of them were as beautiful. “Will you help me back into the water?” he asked.

“Of course,” Carlos promised. He moved to pick Cecil up but was stopped when something banged against the side of his boat, making the whole thing tip to one side, threatening to knock the both of them into the water. “Ow!” There was another bang and Carlos lost his balance, banging into the side of the ship, catching himself on the railing just before he risked falling overboard. “What is going on?!”

“Interloper!”

Cecil’s ears pricked up when he heard Earl’s shout and he smiled, pulling himself over to look down into the water. “Early!”

“Early?” Carlos asked. He blinked when Cecil pointed and he spotted another Merman circling the boat, brown and green scales glistening in the sun whenever his tail broke the surface. “Is your friend?” he asked.

“Yup!” Cecil chirped. He giggled as he waved an arm in the air to catch the other’s attention. A moment later Earl broke the surface of the water and Carlos marveled at the fact that he now could say he had seen  _two_  Mermen in his lifetime. Earl’s skin was the same color as Cecil’s, his hair only slightly shorter than the other’s. One of his eyes however was missing, covered up by a shell and old scarring.

Earl pointed at the Human with the index finger on his three-fingered hand, narrowing his eye at him. “Let my friend go or I’ll knock you into the sea and drown you!”

“Early!” Cecil scolded. “Be nice!”

“Ceec! He caught you in a net!”

“Well! Yes…but..! Uhh…” Cecil looked over at Carlos and smiled. “What’s your name?” he asked.

“Um, Carlos?”

“Carlos…” Cecil smiled to himself as he tested the name on his tongue. He found that the name was as pretty as the one who bore it and he was nearly lost in thought when he heard Earl growl again. “Oh! Carlos didn’t mean it! It was an accident!”

“Cecil, get off the boat,” Earl sighed, allowing some of his anger to fade. As long as Cecil wasn’t in immediate danger…

“Can we help him find some fish?” Cecil asked.

“What?!”

“Pleeeeease, Early?!”

Carlos covered his mouth to hide a smile and a laugh when he heard Earl growl. “If it’s not too much trouble?” he added.

Earl clicked his teeth together softly, watching as the Human helped Cecil to slide overboard and back into the water with a splash. He sighed and looked at the Human again. The Human didn’t seem so bad… “Fine! Follow me then. I know all the proper fishing spots. Cecil is hopeless,” he said.

“Hey!”

“It’s true.”

“Okay but you didn’t have to tell him!”


End file.
